Advice needed. Actually go to ISU?

[LillyMcTipper]

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Hello all,
I was just hoping for a little advice. After 3 years of trying, I was finally accepted to my number one choice in schools Iowa State! yay! This has always been something that I wanted to do ever since I was little and I am very excited to have my dreams come true.

Although, I am now currently left with quite a conundrum. One of the biggest factors to choosing Iowa was that they have a contract for in-state tuition with five Connecticut residents (which is where I am from). You would think that was awesome, but once I contacted the person responsible on the CT side, they said that the State of CT has not currently put the funding in their proposed budget. Sooooo, it is quite probable there there will be no funding available.

So here I went for the last three years, thinking I would only be paying around 100 grand in tuition. Now that has all gone to pieces since I will be paying over 200 grand (just in tuition!!) .. Oh and it is super helpful that they whack you with another semester your senior year since you are in school for 12 months (yay there goes another 43 grand :-()

Obviously I realize vet school is going to be expensive, but was definitely hoping that I would be able to get this scholarship to lesson the load. I am very concerned on how this monetary "investment" is going to pan out. Is it really fruitful to be in debt for way over 200 grand to hope to make 65k a year? Does anyone know of any other ways to help defer some of these costs? It hardly seems possible to conquer this debt.. but. can I really say no to this dream?

Thank you for reading my rant, any suggestions would be very helpful. I am really struggling with the logistics of this lifelong decision. Sorry for the depressing post 🙁

 

[kernel]

Welcome and congratulations on your acceptance!

I personally am not really well versed in the subject of debt, but I came here to suggest that you do a little more perusing around the forum, as there has been quite a lot of discussion about this topic lately. I think there is even a tread that someone recently started who is in a somewhat similar predicament. I also highly recommend you check out the thread about the recent NYTimes article.

Is obtaining residency in a state that has a veterinary school an option for you? A few people here have had success going that route.

Best of luck!

Edit: Link to other thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=988109

 

[dvmdreamer]

So here I went for the last three years, thinking I would only be paying around 100 grand in tuition. Now that has all gone to pieces since I will be paying over 200 grand (just in tuition!!) .. Oh and it is super helpful that they whack you with another semester your senior year since you are in school for 12 months (yay there goes another 43 grand :-()

That really stinks, I can understand how frustrated you are. I would be very heartbroken to be in your situation.

However, I think you have the over 200 grand tuition quote wrong. I believe living expenses and all miscellanous fees including health insurance are included in that figure. ISU Financial Aid. So its about $56,000 total cost of attendance (plus tuition increases, so say $60,000/year) for years 1-3, and $70,000 for year 4 (not an extra $43 grand). My calculations bring that to (very roughly) $250,000 TOTAL.

Personally, I was waitlisted at ISU and IL. I have been investigating living expenses in both areas, as I'm very worried, like you, about the sustainability of the debt compared to the wages. I feel like ISU has many positive things for it, financially. I think you can find housing for significantly under the budgeted amount, if you are willing to do the trailer park thing and have a roommate. They also seem to have more scholarship money available (or at least publically advertised) than many of the other vet schools. It appeared on the tour that there is the possibility of finding part time weekend work in jobs like at the clinic desk that would allow you to study still. Finally, I was very impressed with the financial aid advisor. In his presentation he seemed very knowledgable about the decisions students need to make, as well as outside places to find scholarship money.

 

[labrat37]

LillyMcTipper, I'm in the same boat as you. I'm from CT and was accepted early February. I was crushed after speaking to the folks up at UCONN. Have you heard any updates? Though they mentioned that funding may get reinstated to the budget, I'm having a hard time trying to make my decision to attend ISU when there's no certainty.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using SDN Mobile

 

[Bismarck]

As a CT resident (and UConn alumnus no less), I remember hearing versions of the sketchy funding for contracts every year I was at school, so this is nothing new. Seemingly, funding came through each year somehow. That said, I seem to recall it being some time (after April 15th) that things like this got settled. I chose not to apply to Iowa based on this information as I didn't want the possibility of having my financial support cut based on politicking in Hartford. I would see what financial resources ISU offers as the CTVMA didn't seem to have any opportunities when I asked them last year (also consider professional organizations related to your career aspirations like AABP, AAEP, etc).

 

[restless91]

Hello all,
I was just hoping for a little advice. After 3 years of trying, I was finally accepted to my number one choice in schools Iowa State! yay! This has always been something that I wanted to do ever since I was little and I am very excited to have my dreams come true.

Although, I am now currently left with quite a conundrum. One of the biggest factors to choosing Iowa was that they have a contract for in-state tuition with five Connecticut residents (which is where I am from). You would think that was awesome, but once I contacted the person responsible on the CT side, they said that the State of CT has not currently put the funding in their proposed budget. Sooooo, it is quite probable there there will be no funding available.

So here I went for the last three years, thinking I would only be paying around 100 grand in tuition. Now that has all gone to pieces since I will be paying over 200 grand (just in tuition!!) .. Oh and it is super helpful that they whack you with another semester your senior year since you are in school for 12 months (yay there goes another 43 grand :-()

Obviously I realize vet school is going to be expensive, but was definitely hoping that I would be able to get this scholarship to lesson the load. I am very concerned on how this monetary "investment" is going to pan out. Is it really fruitful to be in debt for way over 200 grand to hope to make 65k a year? Does anyone know of any other ways to help defer some of these costs? It hardly seems possible to conquer this debt.. but. can I really say no to this dream?

Thank you for reading my rant, any suggestions would be very helpful. I am really struggling with the logistics of this lifelong decision. Sorry for the depressing post 🙁

This is so ironic that you posted this! I am actually from North Dakota, and we have the same contract set up as CT. Each year 4 students are funded by ND so that we pay in state tuition instead of OOS. This obviously saves tons of money, but this year the budget has not yet been approved and won't be voted on until May! So, if there is no budget, we pay OOS 🙁 Right now I'm just hoping for the best, debt is debt and you're going to have it no matter what. Look into scholarships and other grants from your state or from ISU..we worked too hard to get here!! Good Luck!

 

[PetPony]

Just popping in to say hi to Bismarck! 🙂

 

[LillyMcTipper]

LillyMcTipper, I'm in the same boat as you. I'm from CT and was accepted early February. I was crushed after speaking to the folks up at UCONN. Have you heard any updates? Though they mentioned that funding may get reinstated to the budget, I'm having a hard time trying to make my decision to attend ISU when there's no certainty.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using SDN Mobile

Sorry about my slow response, I couldn't figure out how to re-find my post! I'm glad to hear someone else is as upset as I am about this. When I talked to Dr. Faustman he did not seem very optimistic. And then once I got my ranking for the 5 spots I was even less optimistic :-(. I am still hoping that there will be enough people that choose to not go and that they will still have the funding! I guess we should find out more after the 15th?

 

[labrat37]

Hello again! I spoke to my representative today, and the funding was reinstated into the budget this year. Yay!

 

[LillyMcTipper]

Hello again! I spoke to my representative today, and the funding was reinstated into the budget this year. Yay!

Oh that is awesome news! I am so excited to hear that it has been reinstated! I was honestly really thinking of not attending if this did not go through. That concept is quite upsetting since this has always been my dream.

I'm still waiting for ISU to acknowledge the grant. Do you know of any time frame that this will happen?

What area of CT are you from if you don't mind me asking?

 

[labrat37]

I live in Hartford currently. You? I'm wondering if any other CT students have heard the news yet. I have no idea when the people up at UConn will be sending notification. It would be great if this could be formally recognized soon. I just heard late last night from my representative. He worked hard to push it through the legislature, which I'm so greatful for. Had the grant not been reinstated, I would have had to reconsider attending in the fall.

 

[LillyMcTipper]

I live in Hartford currently. You? I'm wondering if any other CT students have heard the news yet. I have no idea when the people up at UConn will be sending notification. It would be great if this could be formally recognized soon. I just heard late last night from my representative. He worked hard to push it through the legislature, which I'm so greatful for. Had the grant not been reinstated, I would have had to reconsider attending in the fall.

Wow we are actually really close! I live in Manchester right outside of Hartford 🙂. I spoke to Dr. Faustman (the Uconn representative) who said that the next step was to wait for Iowa to acknowledge the top 5 applicants by e-mail. I'm hoping that it will be soon as I am getting really anxious about this whole development.. I am also not sure what the steps after that would include.. You would think that there would be some other papers from Uconn (aside from the domiciliary affidavit) that needs to be signed. Definitely super excited that at least there is funding available 🙂!

 

[labrat37]

No way, small world! I visit Manchester frequently. I know the funding is available, but I won't really believe it until I hear from ISU and fill out any necessary paperwork. When are you headed out to Ames?

 

[LillyMcTipper]

Agreed. I would love to write to Kathy and ask the status but I fear that I was pretty annoying during the last couple of months regarding this whole thing 🙂. If I don't hear from someone by the middle of next week I am planning on writing to her again. Although I'm not sure if it will go through Kathy or Clay Gurganus.

And I am actually heading out to Ames quite a bit later than I would like. Schedule issues are forcing me to leave on the 17th of August which will get me there late Sunday the 18th barring no catastrophes.

When are you planning on leaving? Are you going to be driving there?

 

[labrat37]

Hello again! Keep me updated if you hear anything! I was guessing we'd learn something by next week, but who knows.

I'm actually heading to Ames right behind you! Leaving Sunday August 18 and hopefully arriving the 19th. I am driving out and bringing my cat. Are you driving as well? Also, how are you moving all of your things? I've just started to consolidate for my move, and have begun to realize how little my vehicle will hold!

 

[LillyMcTipper]

Well that is very comforting to know someone is leaving as late as I 🙂. And yes I will be driving out too with two dogs and my boyfriend. For our bulky stuff we rented a "trailer" from U-Pack that the company will be driving out and storing for a month for us. It does kind of suck that we have to store our stuff, but our lease for our apartment is up the 31st of July :-(. So we will be packing our car with only the essentials that we need for the two week interim 🙂. It is absolutely amazing the amount of junk you can accumulate in such a short period of time!

Please be sure to keep me posted if you hear anything first!